Renewable Energy
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requirement that all new homes must include solar power, starting in 2020
(Roselund and Weaver, 2018), and in some parts of Australia, more than 25%
of homes have rooftop solar panels (Sawin et al., 2018). Where there are large
numbers of solar panels, a significant fraction of the electricity in a region can be
generated by solar. Furthermore, a person’s perception that their neighbors are
moving to solar power (e.g. from seeing the solar panels) can actually increase
the uptake of solar power (Graziano and Gillingham, 2015).
The generation of solar power is not without some issues. Finding locations
for large, utility- scale solar farms has sometimes led to controversies when
there are associated environmental issues (Mulvaney, 2019). Of course, careful
consideration of this and other issues may be needed for large projects. Also,
solar panels can be manufactured from many different materials, and some
of these materials entail significant environmental, health, and safety issues.
This is an issue that should be addressed in the manufacturing process and
in the end- of- life recycling of these materials. Mulvaney (2019) has some significant discussions about these issues in his book.
Finally, this section has noted several national and regional policy actions
(e.g. in California) that have been helpful in accelerating shifts towards
renewable energy, particularly solar power. The inverse is also true for certain other policies, such as tariffs. Presently, China is the country with the largest production of solar panels. Although China has many locations where
solar panels have been installed, the country also sells solar panels to many
countries around the world. One of the decisions that has been made by the
United States is to place a tariff on Chinese solar panels in order to encourage
local production. This is also an issue in India because of the benefits to the
local economy of having domestic production of solar panels (Seetharaman,
2018): India’s targets are to have 40% renewable energy by 2030 and 75% by
2050. In 2017, 40% of newly added electric generating capacity in India was
solar (Lo, 2018).
5.3 Wind Energy
There has been great progress over the last 20 years in the generation of electricity from wind. The price of electricity from wind has been decreasing,
and the size of new windmills has been increasing. The costs of wind power
generated at sites on land depend on the wind resources at the site, but generation costs are now in the range of $0.029 to $0.063/ kWh (Lazard, 2018;
Sawin et al., 2018; Solar, 2018; Zervos, 2018). There are bid prices for energy
close to $0.03/ kWh in markets as diverse as Canada, India, Mexico, and
Morocco (Zervos, 2018).
In 2017, 52 GW of new wind power- generating capacity was added,
and global cumulative capacity is now at about 539 GW (Sawin et al.,
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55
requirement that all new homes must include solar power, starting in 2020
(Roselund and Weaver, 2018), and in some parts of Australia, more than 25%
of homes have rooftop solar panels (Sawin et al., 2018). Where there are large
numbers of solar panels, a significant fraction of the electricity in a region can be
generated by solar. Furthermore, a person’s perception that their neighbors are
moving to solar power (e.g. from seeing the solar panels) can actually increase
the uptake of solar power (Graziano and Gillingham, 2015).
The generation of solar power is not without some issues. Finding locations
for large, utility- scale solar farms has sometimes led to controversies when
there are associated environmental issues (Mulvaney, 2019). Of course, careful
consideration of this and other issues may be needed for large projects. Also,
solar panels can be manufactured from many different materials, and some
of these materials entail significant environmental, health, and safety issues.
This is an issue that should be addressed in the manufacturing process and
in the end- of- life recycling of these materials. Mulvaney (2019) has some significant discussions about these issues in his book.
Finally, this section has noted several national and regional policy actions
(e.g. in California) that have been helpful in accelerating shifts towards
renewable energy, particularly solar power. The inverse is also true for certain other policies, such as tariffs. Presently, China is the country with the largest production of solar panels. Although China has many locations where
solar panels have been installed, the country also sells solar panels to many
countries around the world. One of the decisions that has been made by the
United States is to place a tariff on Chinese solar panels in order to encourage
local production. This is also an issue in India because of the benefits to the
local economy of having domestic production of solar panels (Seetharaman,
2018): India’s targets are to have 40% renewable energy by 2030 and 75% by
2050. In 2017, 40% of newly added electric generating capacity in India was
solar (Lo, 2018).
5.3 Wind Energy
There has been great progress over the last 20 years in the generation of electricity from wind. The price of electricity from wind has been decreasing,
and the size of new windmills has been increasing. The costs of wind power
generated at sites on land depend on the wind resources at the site, but generation costs are now in the range of $0.029 to $0.063/ kWh (Lazard, 2018;
Sawin et al., 2018; Solar, 2018; Zervos, 2018). There are bid prices for energy
close to $0.03/ kWh in markets as diverse as Canada, India, Mexico, and
Morocco (Zervos, 2018).
In 2017, 52 GW of new wind power- generating capacity was added,
and global cumulative capacity is now at about 539 GW (Sawin et al.,